Nitish takes a dig at Centre on Smart City scheme

Questioning the Centre's plan to make a city 'Smart' spending only Rs 500 crore in next five years, Nitish raised the question when he recently met Naidu in DelhiMadan Kumar | TNN | February 26, 2016, 13:00 IST

PATNA: Taking a swipe at Union urban development minister Venkaiah Naidu for not including any Bihar city in the first list of 20 cities to be developed by the Centre as Smart City, Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar on Wednesday said, "Some people working at the Centre are experts in 'smart talking' but people working in Bihar are 'smart workers'."

"We believe in performing," Nitish said without naming the Union minister. He was speaking at a function here.

Questioning the Centre's plan to make a city 'Smart' spending only Rs 500 crore in next five years, Nitish said he raised the question when he recently met Naidu in Delhi. "I also questioned exclusion of Patna and suggested covering every state capital under the initiative," Nitish said and added the Centre earlier planned to cover 100 cities but later shortlisted just 20 for the first phase because of fund crisis.

"They do not have necessary funds for developing 100 cities in one phase. Thus, Bihar's three cities which had found place in the list of 100 cities, were excluded," Nitish said.

He also announced allocation of Rs 8,000 crore to the state's urban local bodies for development works as per the recommendations of the Fifth State Finance Commission. "Funds won't be a problem... The government is committed to executing many urban schemes as part of implementation of our 'Saat Nischay' (seven commitments)," he said.